USA: The San Francisco Chronicle has a fine piece on sprinter Nathan Adrian today. It starts: Swimming sprinters are wired differently from most people, even from other competitive swimmers, Nathan Adrian thinks. "We're competitive in everything," he said. "It's not so much a love to win as a hate to lose. I used to love to play Risk or video games, but it would stress me out too much if I'd lose. I'd hate it so much." The 6-foot-6 Cal junior is now 21 and reveals the reason why he has no regrets about having swum the heats of the Olympic 4x100m free relay in Beijing but not the final in which Jason Lezak helped Michael Phelps to stay on track for a record eight gold medals. Adrian says he had other things on his mind, like "trying to figure out what these people were doing that was making them so great and separating them from everybody else." London 2012 is where it's at now. Adrian has no regrets that shiny suits have gone either. "It was fun to continually push the limits, but I hated putting them on," he said. "It took close to an hour." His Cal coach Dave Durden will doubtless be happy too, for in Adrian he believes he has brain and braun and a feel for water, all the more relevant after a return to textile suits that leave the swimmer to do the work. Adrian, says Durden, has "kinesthetic awareness" and is "very thoughtful, very cerebral". Some nice stuff from mum and dad too. Read the full article at the SF Chronicle.
Brazil: the Brazilian media speculates today that Cesar Cielo, Olympic 50m free champion, and his mentor coach Alberto Silva may soon part after a long and fruitful sporting partnership. O Estado de São Paulo asks "Pinheiros or Corinthians?" Cielo, due to compete at the Austin GP in Texas this week, is expected to decide which Brazilian club to represent "in the next few days", say reports. But one thing is already certain: after considering an offer from Corinthians, Silva has decided to stay at Pinheiros. At first it looked as though that would also ensure Cielo's loyalty but Brazilian papers suggest that a meeting between Corithians officials and the swimmer's mother, Flávia, ended with the club guaranteeing the conditions that Cielo had sought. Those conditions include a salary for the sprinter, who spends a significant proportion of his time training in the US, as well as a percentage of any revenue generated from the use of his image. Cielo is reported to have been unhappy with image rights arrangements at the club he grew up with. Under Brazil club rules, Cielo must sign on the dotted line by the closing of a transfer window on March 30.
Australia: Marieke Guehrer, world 50m 'fly champ, has stripped off to promote coverage of the Australian Swimming Championships, according to the Aussie media. Guehrer, 24, is happy that the suit will no longer be the big draw. "It was a good fun shoot and the idea of getting back to basics and putting the focus on an athlete's ability is a good one," the Aussie Telegraph quoted her as saying. "Hopefully now it means we can return to talking about swimmers and their performances in the pool, rather than what suits they are wearing." Good for her.
Italy: at a short-course meet in Desenzano, Samuel Pizzetti put in some good early season efforts of 3:47.15 and 14:48.39 over 400m and 1,500m free. Over at the San Donà di Piave s/c meet, Federico Colbertaldo clocked 3:49.96 over 400m free and swam an event that does not normally figure in the distance ace's repertoire: 200m 'fly ... in 2:04.24. At the Forlì s/c meet Federico Bocchia, on 21.34 last December, got hios textile season underway with a 22.71 effort.
Spain: The 1986 world championships venue in Madrid is to be Spain's first national education and excellence centre for youth swimming for 13 to 17-year-olds. The project will include all Olympic aquatic sports and will see the city of Madrid invest 10 million euros at the facility.
